Hard Drive Formatting Problem

[Captain315]

I have two Seagate 500gb IDE drives that are in an external USB enclosure. I had them combined to read as a single drive. Somewhere along the line I did something wrong as I can't get either one of them to format to their correct size and use them separately. Does anyone know how you can format a drive to where it displays its actual size (500gb) rather than the combined size of 931gb? I have tried everything I know to do in getting this back to where they were originally. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[TJohns]

Right-click MY COMPUTER
Select MANAGE from menu
Go to DISK MANAGEMENT option
Does Windows "see" two physical drives, or is the USB enclosure making them "appear" as a single drive in the lower part of the screen?

If they're individual drives (probably with the same drive letter), right-click on the "bar graph" part and select DELETE PARTITION. Repeat for the other drive.
Reboot (just to be safe), back into DISK MANAGEMENT, right-click CREATE PARTITION & follow prompts. Repeat for second drive.

Trevor

[minidv2dvd]

500gb is an advertising gimmick, no hard drive measures up. they advertise the size in giga bits, but in usage it's giga bytes that you are expecting. there is nothing wrong with the drives. there is no missing space. my western digital "500"s all are really 465GB.

[Captain315]

TJohns... It shows up as a single 931gb drive rather than the two "500" gb drives that are in the enclosure. I have set the switches on the back of the enclosure to make them read as separate drives but to no avail. I've even taken them out and put them inside the computer but I can't seem to get this problem straightened out.

[TJohns]

Putting them directly in the PC while working on them is probably better.

If you're looking at the size Windows is giving the DRIVE LETTER it will still be the combined size. Look at the PHYSICAL DRIVE size on the gray button to the left of the graph. Since you're planning on formatting the drives anyway, it can't hurt to remove the partitions & see what happens.

BTW, what "type" are the partitions? They'll be color coded, and the legend is at the bottom of the Disk Management window. I'm guessing striped? Maybe spanned?

Trev

[Captain315]

Trev...
The physical size in the gray shows 931gb (combined size). It only shows one partition and that shows as primary (blue). I'm guessing that these two drives have been ruined through my ignorance. I sure do hate to lose all the money spent on them but I'm getting frustrated with this. I've been trying everything I know to do for about a month now. I really appreciate your helping though.

Tom

[hech54]

If you think they are "ruined"....ship them over to me. I could use some extra video space.
This is also the reason why I NEVER use partitions.

[TJohns]

Let's think about this. You're saying...

1) I have a box with physical two drives
2) Box appears as a single 931 GB drive to Windows
3) Put one drive into PC - physical drive shows as 931 GB still, partition 931 GB

Conclusion: Your initial statement of 2 x 500 GB drives seems incorrect. You've got what appears to be 2 x 1TB drives that are mirrored in the box (for redundancy).

Fact: a 500 GB physical disk WILL NOT appear to be 931 GB. A PARTITION (aka drive letter) on the disk might appear so (Windows believes whatever the drive tells it)

Again, simple test is JUST TRY IT. Put one drive into PC, remove existing partition, create new partition, what size does it come out?

In Computer Management, go to DEVICE MANAGER. Expand DISK DRIVES. What model number drives appear? Should be easy to find manufacturers specifications from that!

Trev

[guns1inger]

Or both drives have been set to be Dymanic Discs and so appear to be a single contiguous disk. Note : this is not the same as a RAID configuration, and the discs do not have to be matching is size or other attributes.

[Nelson37]

First, your drives are not ruined, at least in terms of mechanical functionality. You may very well have blown out all the data by changing the configuration switch on the box, we just have to sort through the confusion. Too many variables and not enough concrete information.

Now, each drive will have on it some sort of label, usually identifying the capacity of the drive, or at least a model number with which a simple Google search will yield the required information. This easily-obtainable information will clear up a lot of mystery, and I am in fact somewhat awe-struck that it has not already been provided.

Connect ONE drive directly to the PC. Your earlier comment regarding "no avail" is remarkably un-helpful. What you want to do with this ONE extra drive is delete the partition and create a new one. There a few extra hoops to jump thru if the disk is dynamic, but IF that is the case, Windows will clearly identify it as such, and then you will tell us the EXACT text of the error message, won't you?

Also, describe the on-drive interface, SATA, PATA, SCSI, other?

[Captain315]

Gunslinger,
That is exactly my situation although I don't know what a dynamic drive is. I've taken them out of the USB box and put them into my computer and formatted them. When I check the size it keeps saying that it's a 931gb drive.

[Captain315]

Nelson,
These are both IDE drives installed in an external box and connected to the computer through USB. The label on each drive states that it is a 500gb. When I originally put them in the external case, I set the switches on the back of the box to make them appear as a single drive. Deleting partitions and reformatting does not clear up the problem. However, I will try it again.

[Bjs]

One look in computer management would tell you if the partition is basic or dynamic.

Think you need to approach this hellish idea from the "stripset" side of things.

A: Undo (remove) strip set:

1. Go to Start | Programs | Administrative Tools | Disk Administrator.
2. Select the stripe set you want to delete.
3. Select delete from the partition drop-down list.
4. Confirm to delete the partition.

Of course any data will be vaporized.

B: Shut system down
C: Reset externals as independent units (refer to manual for correct setup)
D: Restart system
E: Reconnect unit to system.
F: Computer management should now see two independent drives
G: Partition and format as required

[Nelson37]

One. Uno. Singular. Solitary. Single. All by itself.

If by IDE you mean PATA (wide ribbon cable) then you might need to change jumper to Master or Standalone, which is another way to say Single. As in One, uno, singular, solitary, etc.

If you have two drives seen as a striped pair by Windows, when you partition and format you will end up with a newly partitioned and formatted striped pair. You can break this pairing as BJS described, but physically seperating the drives is more direct and error-proof.

Using Windows' software RAID striping is one of the slowest and most danger-prone hard drive setups you could choose.